Set Free
by momentomori611
Summary: Remember the mutant girl the Flock set free in New York City?
1. Chapter 1

I sat in my crate looking longingly at the door in front of me. Slowly it opened and in stepped a women with red frizzy hair. "Subject A-12," she called out my name. I grunted in response and she walked over to my crate. After it was unlatched, I painfully got out.

The lady grabbed my arms and led me into a hallway. She led me to the first door on the right and put a code into the keypad. I don't get why there were keypads. Who would want to break into this place?

I followed her into a sterile looking room. A long stainless steel counter ran along on edge, while a line of computers went around another. Smack in the center was a table with a bunch of straps and buckles. My heart dropped. Not this test again.

Other scientists were behind some plastic shield holding up pencils and clipboards. Just seeing the happiness on their faces made me sick. How can you be happy because of someone else's pain?

A male white-coat stepped out from behind the shield and helped the read-head strap me down. His touch was ginger, he didn't want it to hurt. Unlike the lady. She was making the buckles go as tight as they would go. I started choking because I couldn't breathe, the man instantly undid the buckles and made them looser.

The lady turned around and grabbed a pair of tweezers off the table. It troubled me that I couldn't see her, I was on my stomach. She poked me hard in the back, "wings," she said nastily. As if she was talking to a parasite

Slowly I worked my back muscles and undid my wings. They were so weak and frail from not being used. I hadn't been able to fly, it was a terrible burden. Having these stupid things and not being able to use them. I hated it.

_Pluck!_ I winced. This isn't the test I was expecting… Why was she ripping out my feathers? _RIP!_ I screamed as I felt the skin open as she ripped out the feather. I could feel the blood running down my back and dripping onto the floor.

The lady laughed. I turned my neck as far as it would go and saw a gaping hole in my grey wing. My largest and most important feather was gone. Wait…there was a tingling inside of me. The lady stepped back in surprise. I gasped.

Where the feather had gone, another was slowly sprouting back. The tingling left when it was fully regenerated. I could hear the scribbling of the pens on the paper. "Wow…" the man whispered.

The buckles were ripped off of me and I was yanked up by my hair. "Just one more test…" she whispered in my ear. She threw me into the arms of the man and put the table up right. Now it would be like standing.

I was buckled once again to the table, not knowing what was coming next. The lady turned around and grabbed something off the table. A saw. I started squirming, trying to get away. I looked over at the man but he just stood there staring. She took my outstretched arm and lifted her arm holding the saw. I closed my eyes as her arm went down. A searing pain spread through my body and I screamed. A dull thud sounded as my dead arm hit the sterile floor.

My body arched with the scream. My whole body was on fire. Then the tingling spread through like ice. I looked at my arm with tears in my eyes. Once again it was growing back. Slowly my new arm came back. As soon as it was back, I moved my fingers. Just like new.

I looked past the lady and to the people in the shield. They were all scribbling madly. Now as I looked at the floor, I noticed tiny droplets of blood. The lady was covered in it. So was i.

The man stepped forward. "Abigale, I have this. Go get decontaminated and tested. I can take our subject back to its cage." He undid the buckles and I fell forward and landed on my hands and knees. I re-grew my arm, but I didn't get all of my blood back.

He helped me up and I walked back to my cage. The room smelt terrible that we were being housed in. There were about 10 other mutants in the room.

In the cage on top of me was a boy mixed with a lizard. He had blue scales running up his arms and legs. His neck was covered in them. On his face was the after effect of years of testing. Thin little scars were all over his face. The scientists had fed him this chemical that caused his skin to split open, not the tough layer of scales.

Next to me was a girl mixed with a cat of some sort. She had a very thin layer of golden hair covering her entire body. On her face were whiskers and pointy ears sprouting out of her head. She also had a long tail. Her spine was curved in a way that allowed her to crouch down and run like a leopard, but when she wanted she could stand up and look human.

"You're so pale…what did they do to you?" asked the girl.

I looked down at my skin. It was as white as parchment. "Cut off my arm," I said with a very weak smile.

"But…"

"I grew it back. See?" I stuck my arm out of my crate and into hers, making sure not to let my skin touch the metal. It was pumped with electricity.

She touched it with a clawed hand. I smiled and pulled my arm back. This girl was older than me. Maybe 16, she had just gotten moved to this warehouse. I smiled at her then passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I awoke with a start. There was noise behind the wall in front of me. Talking.

"I can't get it! This is pointless," said a female voice.

Someone whispered something I couldn't hear. Then someone exclaimed, "I got it! We're in!"

This was interesting. It sounded like someone was trying to break _in._ We've never had someone break in before. Whoever it was, they were crazy. They were probably going to get caught and we were going to get punished. It wasn't right.

_Thud!_ I whipped my head over to the door. It flew open and put a hole in the wall behind it.

A tall female walked in first. 4 others followed behind her and flooded the room. "Okay everyone start unlocking cages!"

The group fanned out and started flipping locks. A small boy came up to my cage and unlocked it. "C'mon! We're saving you!"

A boy with dark hair turned around, "Gazzy! No time for conversation! Get moving!"

The little kid ran off and started unlocking others. When the girl next to me was unlocked, she prowled out, showing her fangs to our saviors.

A coffee colored girl put her hands up and said, "Whoa, watch it. We are only trying to save you…"

The girl I suspected was their leader looked around, "Okay, good. Everyone's out! Let's hit it!"

Everyone started running towards the door at once, so I tried my best to follow.

We went through a room filled completely with computers, then into a tunnel that smelt worse than our cages. It was like a river type thing, but a thick green sludge instead.

We had to form a line in order to fit in the small walkway.

A shadow formed in front of us. The girl in front held up her hand and our train stopped.

The shadow laughed. "Oh Maximum…thinking you can save the world and all…"

Maximum waved us on. "I can take care of him. Go on."

The tall dark haired boy protested. "No. We can't do that. We stick together."

The leader shook her head. "Fang…"

Fang shook his head too. "C'mon guys. Let's get you out of here."

We started walking again. I looked back to see this giant wolf-like being walk out of the shadows. The Maximum girl raised her fists to prepare for a fight.

Our group kept walking forward. After a while the fight disappeared into the shadows.

Eventually we found a shaft of light ahead. "This is where we get-" Fang was cut off by a sickening snap. It echoed throughout the tunnels. Fang went white, like so pale. He almost seemed to know what happened.

There was a scream. It was male. "MAX! MAX COME BACK!"

I could barely hear it, but I knew the guy was screaming. "MAX! YOU JUST KILLED YOUR BROTHER!"

Everyone heard it. The Fang guy turned around and ran up the ladder. The small kid followed, then a tall blonde kid, the coffee colored girl, than a small girl with blonde curls. She strongly resembled the little boy.

The little girl motioned for us to come up after her. I went first.

My head broke the surface and I thought I was going to be blinded. There were so many people, and these things on 4 wheels kept going past us.

Max flew, I mean literally _flew_, out of the sewer. Her wings were brown and white. "Up and away!" she yelled down to us. Her group immediately unfurled the wings that no one knew was there.

The tall one with dark hair had black wings with a purple tint. The tall blonde had white ones with a black stripe. The little boy had pure white and the girl who looked like him had pure white wings also. The girl with dark skin had dark brown wings.

They all took to the skies at once, leaving us.

Only the little girl with white wings hovered above us. "We're sorry. We really are." Then she took off to follow her flock.

No no no. they brought us out here to just ditch us? No way.

I started running down the alleyway that we were in, watching then slowly disappear into the clouds above. I thrust up with my feet and started flapping my wings. I got off the ground. The wall ahead of me was coming in close. I was going to run into it. I looked down past my dirty night gown to the ground below. 20 feet.

The wall was coming closer and I didn't know how to land. I braced myself to hit the wall.

It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I started falling freely through the air. My back crashed through the plastic lid of a dumpster, it crumpling beneath me.

Tears sprung to my eyes. How could they do that to us? We were helpless. We were all stuck in cages for a majority of our lives, we had no idea how to survive in the world. We were screwed.

I brought my filthy, blood covered hand up to my face to wipe away the tears. I don't cry a lot, but this is even worse. Being abandoned by someone who just saved your butt.

I climbed out of the trash bin and walked back over to the small crowd of mutants.

The cat girl walked over to me. "What happened?" she had tears in her eyes too. I put my hand on her fuzzy shoulder.

Everyone started screaming and running around. I looked over at the man hole. Slowly more monsters like the one that attacked Max were coming out of the hole.

They wouldn't stop. More and more kept coming out.

The first one that came out grabbed one of the smaller children that had a long scaly tail. It threw the child down into the hole and I heard it get washed away by the gross current of filth. One of the monsters lunged for me and I dodged it by a hair. It yelled out in fury and grabbed my wing. I felt it snap under his brute strength. The he screamed out in pain. He let go of me and I landed on my feet.

The cat girl was sinking her long fangs into his hairy leg. I grabbed her and pulled her off of him. We started running from the massacre. "We need to get out of here! We can't save them all!" I looked back to see the lizard boy get bit in the neck and fall into the hole. The girl grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the alleyway.

We ran until we hit Grand Central Park. I jumped up onto a tree branch and found it easy. The cat girl just climbed up. We both fell into a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"HAHA look at the hobo children!" Another rock nailed me in the shoulder. I cried out in pain as it took a chunk of flesh with it. Slowly it regenerated.

Around the base of our tree was a group of teenagers dressed in black. Hanging around their legs were long silver chains. I gulped in worry. Around the outside of the circle of men were young girls wearing netting on their legs and really short skirts. Their faces were so white they looked like vampires.

"Why don't ya come down, huh? We'd love to get a taste of you," called a man from below. That only made me press farther back to the trunk. _THUNK!_ A rock hit the trunk a few inches from me head and buried itself into the rough bark. My breathing instantly sped up.

The cat girl next to me had her claws and fangs out. She was hissing. Her tail was all poofy.

She slowly detached herself from the tree and gracefully walked to the end of the branch. She let out an awfully loud growl and the taunts from below stopped.

"What the-" he never got his question out. A low roar sounded and a blur flew down and hit the kid full on. Everyone else scattered.

"Leave. Them. _Alone!"_ said the thing that was on top of the boy. I looked over at cat-girl and she was still poised on her branch. She looked equally surprised.

The thing that was on top of the boy was huge, furry, and loud. It got up off of the boy and he scrambled backward and took off into the park.

As the monster got up we saw a flash of claws against the moonlight. "Come down. You're safe with me," it said.

We had no choice. If we didn't obey it could do anything to us. The cat-girl jumped gracefully off the tree and landed on all fours, I just jumped.

Both of us walked up to the thing. It was smaller now, its cloths too big for him. "Come here," he sounded impatient.

We covered the distance shortly and saw that he was a boy, about 14 years old. "Names?" he asked.

"Libby," I found myself speaking before the girl next to me could. _Where did that come from?_

"No. You look like a Storm to me," he turned to the girl next to me, "you can be Libby."

"Okay then…Storm…" it sounded weird.

He turned away from us and shrugged a backpack off of him and tossed it to me. "In there are some cloths. Put them, you're going to need them."

I looked down at my dirty, bloody nightgown and opened up the pack. I grabbed a black hooded sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. They seemed to fit perfect.

Libby got a hooded grey jacket and a pair of jeans. I put ,y hand in the bag again and came out with a pair of old converse. I gave them to Libby and went back in to get the old skateboarding shoes.

When everything was on I gave the bag back to the boy. "So what's your name?"

"Hendrix," he answered.

I looked back to our old nightgowns. "Leave them," he said.

He started walking forward and we followed. Libby flipped up her hood to hide her ears and the boy took off his sunglasses and threw them back to her. "thanks," she mumbled. Libby put the glasses over her piercing yellow eyes.

"Can you see? You should have night vision, like me," said Hendrix.

As a matter of fact, I do have night vision. "Yeah, I can see okay," she answered him.

We followed him out of the park and into the street. Slowly the sun was coming up, and he quickened his pace. It became hard to keep up. Soon the sun was up and the street became crowded and I lost sight of Libby and Hendrix. Of course it was easy for her to keep up. Then all of the sudden something yanked me into an alleyway and a hand covered my mouth. "Shh," it was Hendrix, "we need a place to talk. Follow me."

I followed him through a steel door in the brick wall. Inside was a dark room, complete with a old couch, stove, and fridge. Libby was chilling on the couch. Hendrix sat down on an old wooden chair. "Time to talk. What are you guys?"

"I'm part cat," answered Libby.

My wings tightened against my back. "And you?"

"Avian."

"Oh, another bird-kid," he said. "Well, do you remember the fight in the alleyway when you guys got out? The wolf things?"

I nodded yes.

"That's what I am, but I'm not here to harm you. I've come to save you. All we need to do is work together and with our gifts we can save the others."

My eyes went wide. "but how did know we were in trouble in the tree?"

"Ah, well I've been following you. I was waiting for the right time to talk to you, so I stole some cloths and brought them to you guys. No way could you go walking around in see-through nightgowns in New York City."

"Well, what are we going to do?"

"That's what I need you guys for. Here, we need to get out of here. Move place to place, if we stay in one place for too long we could be found out. The punishment would be cruel. Your little lizard friend? They took him and ripped out his scales one by one until he bled to death," He turned to me, "You on the other hand would probably not die. All of your feathers would be ripped out, but they would be regenerated. They would probably keep cutting off stuff. What a way to go…"

My hands were covering my ears. No way was that going to happen.

"So you guys in?" he asked.

I lifted my head and looked him right in the eyes. "Yes."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Hendrix lifted up his hand. "Gimme some,"

I slapped his hand in a high five. He turned to Libby and gave her one too.

Suddenly he got all serious. "Okay, what can you guys do? I mean like I know you can fly, and that you're part cat. But what else? I've heard of some pretty wicked stories of other mutants…"

Libby spoke up first, "I can climb, and run faster than a cheetah. I have fangs that come out, almost like a vampire."

"Well, I can fly…but the Coats never taught me how to. I guess they were scared I would try to escape. But I can regenerate. It takes a lot of energy though….like I need food afterwards."

"So, I can take you to the rest of the Resistance and they can help train you. Some have wings, but not like you. It's not natural what they did, but my friends can help. Let's get out of here and meet up with them. You need to meet 'em. They're pretty cool," Hendrix got up off the couch and walked out the door.

I looked over at Libby and shrugged. "What do we have to lose?" and walked out the door after Hendrix. I looked around the empty room and hurried after them. Libby was right, what _did_ we have to lose?

They were waiting outside for me. "Knew you would come…" said Hendrix. "Okay you guys, stay close, but act natural. The scientists are everywhere so watch what you do. Keep those glasses on and your hood up. You, keep your wings _hidden._ Got it? Good. Let's go."

He grabbed our wrists and pulled us out into the crowded walk. I looked only at the back of Hendrix's head. The sun glinted off his black hair. His build was strong. He had only scar going from his eyebrow to his cheek. I could tell he had lived his whole time fighting for his life.

I sighed and grabbed Libby's hand. She gave it a reassuring squeeze. I nodded and looked at her. There was a bond right there, like something had been built. Hard to explain.

Suddenly Hendrix slowed down and walked next to us. "At 24th street, turn. Just follow me and for god's sake, keep looking the way you are. We're going in a bad part of town, and it'll be like back in the park. Just don't say anything."

Both Libby and I nodded, but kept walking. 24th street loomed up in front of us and we turned. Nothing happened on the street behind us, but no one followed. This street was completely deserted except for a few gangbangers and random hobos. I flipped my hood up and kept my head down.

As we walked they whispered and pointed. The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. Something didn't feel right. I looked at Libby and she looked totally distressed. Even though the pockets on her jeans I could tell that her claws were out. No one felt comfortable.

Just before I thought things were bad, 4 guys detached themselves from the brick wall and closed in around us. In low voices meant for only us they said, "It's fine. We're with you. The good guys."

Another guy next to the one who spoke up said "Yeah, we're the dancers." Everyone else laughed except me and Libby. I didn't get it.

"Here this way," one guy grabbed my arm and pulled me through another steel door. In here it was nicer.

Beds lined the right wall and a small kitchen was in one corner. It looked pretty much like an abandoned warehouse, the living quarters only taking up a small portion of the building. Another small part was filled with weights and exercise machines. Stuff was set up around everywhere, no real organization was set up.

"Storm and Libby, this is where you'll be sleeping," We both turned around to see the speaker. The guy looked maybe 15, and was wearing a sleeveless black shirt. His muscles were bulging; I could see his abs through his shirt. His blonde hair was almost in his eyes. Only 2 out of the 4 men had jackets on. They were all taking them off.

None of them were wearing shirts underneath, only black harnesses. Both of them clipped them off and I caught my breath as wings extended from their backs. I watched as they bent their knees and took off without a running start. Their wings weren't like mine though, they were un-natural looking, as though they didn't belong there. But the boys had flying down to what looked like a science. With one flick of a feather they would turn. It was amazing to watch.

Hendrix walked up behind me. "Pretty cool to watch, huh?"

I nodded in agreement.

He pointed to a guy with black and white speckled wings. "That's Miles. The other one, dark brown hair, pure white wings? That's Armstrong. We're all alike. I'll explain later," he said and walked off.

The 2 guys flying around came down and landed. Miles was folding up his wings as he walked towards me, Armstrong following. "We hear you have wings. It true?"

"Yeah…why?"

"We're jealous. These stupid things were sewed onto us. I'd much rather be natural, like. But hey, I'd still be a mutant…."

"I just don't know how to use them….How did you guys get so good?" I asked.

"Self teachers. See, these other mutants, they're just like you. When the Institute still had us, we would be shown tapes of them flying. Saying 'That's what you need to catch' we were supposed to go kill the mutants, but we were all more interested in watching them fly. We'll teach ya if ya like…eh…?"

"Storm," I said. It still felt weird coming out of my mouth.

"Ah, Storm. We'll go get food and after we all eat we'll start on our first lessen, will we?"

"Sounds like a deal!" A huge grin spread across my face.

Miles and Armstrong put their harnesses back on. I finally saw that they were to hold down their awkward wings. I didn't need one, for my wings folded up perfectly along my spine. Out of mind, out of sight.

"Hey, Hendrix!" yelled Armstrong.

Hendrix turned around. "Yeah?"

"We're going to out to get food. Anything in particular?"

He shook his head and Armstrong shrugged and turned to Miles. Miles turned and shrugged at Armstrong, then they left.

I walked over to Libby. "Do you think we'll like it?" I asked

"Better than the Institute? Heck yes. I trust these people. They give off a friendly vibe. They'll help us. I know it." She put her hand on my shoulder and we gazed around at our new home.

"Hey you guys, come get comfy!" yelled the blonde boy. Both me and Libby walked over to the line of cots along the edge of the wall. I sat on the one in the corner against the wall.

The blonde boy and Hendrix had started up a game of cards. "So do you guys have a story?" he asked.

I turned to Libby and she nodded. "Well… we were sitting in our cages when these people busted in. They took us out on the street but couldn't take all of us. All of these wolf things attacked us in an alleyway and only me and Libby escaped. We ran to a park and up a tree, then Hendrix came and saved us from these people throwing stuff at us. Then we came here," I explained.

"Wow….well, I'm Mace. Just another Eraser, like our fellows here." Mace's hand grew long claws and he looked at them in front of his face. With a flick of his wrist his hand returned to normal.

"Not yet, Mace. They just got out. We still need to train them for the end." said Hendrix in a serious voice.

The end?


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

My brow furrowed. The End? What the heck was that?

"What's the End?" asked Libby. It was like she read my mind.

Hendrix and Mace both looked surprised. Mace had this are-you-kidding-me look on his face. "The Coats never warned you? Didn't they train you with the Others?"

This was all new to me and Libby. Nobody had trained us, save the occasional maze or rock wall. We weren't told about any of this. We weren't taught to fight or anything.

I shook my head. "No…No training whatsoever. We weren't allowed to talk to the others. Mostly the scientists just performed tests on us. Like, how long you can go with no air, how much blood you could lose, how long you can run without breathing hard. Just stuff like that. No training for this 'end' you speak of," I said.

Mace sighed and looked at Hendrix as he ran is hand through his hair. "The End is when all the humans die and only mutants survive. That's what the School is doing; making more of us to withstand the day. That's what our kind is for. We are to wipe out the human race and take over with a pure mutant species. Everything is supposed to be stronger," explained Mace.

_That's so wrong in so many ways,_ I thought. I was about to voice my opinion, when Armstrong and Miles burst through the door. They were carrying 4 bags of food. Both of them walked over to the small kitchen and dumped the bags on the counter. "Chinese!" yelled Miles.

Mace shoved Hendrix to the ground when he went to run for the food. As Mace ran past, Hendrix grabbed his legs and he tumbled to the ground. Hendrix used Maces momentum to pull himself and grab a bag of food.

When Hendrix ran back to his cot, Mace was still on the ground laughing. Hendrix looked down and laughed with a mouth full of eggroll. He shoved the rest in his mouth and jumped on his cot.

"C'mon girls, food! Delicious, wonderful, food!" yelled Armstrong.

Libby and I both got up and walked over to the huge selection of food. Miles picked up a box and handed it to Libby. "Chicken. Cats like chicken, right?" said Miles.

"What's chicken?" asked Libby.

Miles dropped his fork on the ground and Armstrong dropped his bottle of water, it exploding upon impact. I heard Mace behind us say, "WHAT did she just say!"

I was kinda curious too. What _was_ chicken? I've heard of it before but never tasted it. "C'mere," whispered a stunned looking Miles.

He held out his fork. On it was a white looking meat covered in a brown sauce. I ate it and chewed and swallowed. Libby did the same.

"It's good," we both said at the same time. The warehouse exploded in cheers. Before that, the place was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

Libby picked up the whole container and carried it back to her bed. I stepped up and looked at the selection. Nothing looked like what they gave us at the Institute; a brown thick shake full of protein and nutrients for building muscle.

"Uh," I said, a blank expression on my face. Miles and Armstrong looked at each other, rubbing their chins. Armstrong picked up a container of what looked like chicken and showed Miles. Miles shook his head and pointed to something brown and noodley. Armstrong shook his head in approval. "Good choice, my friend," he said to his friend.

I took the food and a water bottle and went back to my cot. The servings were huge, I noticed. Everyone looked to be enjoying themselves, though. I put my fork and picked up some of the noodles. It tasted good. There were little slithers of meat mixed in with it.

Miles and Armstrong came and sit down on their cots and dug in. Instantly conversation was struck up.

"So Storm and Libby, do you know who we are?"asked Hendrix.

"Our saviors?" said Libby sarcastically.

"Haha, very funny, but no. We're what you call Erasers, a wolf-human hybrid. We are built for killing, and only killing. The Institute made us to be their body guards. They would set us off on subjects that wouldn't behave. But the Resistance has broken that chain. We have groups that have broken off all over the world. Tomorrow you will see us Shift and train as our natural form…" He explained.

Suddenly I was hit with a wave of flashbacks. The fight in the alleyway….Hendrix attacking the group of attackers…. Libby elbowed me in the ribs to bring me back. The whole room was silent. The silence was broken by Miles letting out a huge belch. Everyone burst out laughing. "Sorry!" he yelled out. I laughed a little bit more and took a swig of water.

I finished off my food and set it aside. Everyone started finishing up after me, so Armstrong got up and grabbed a trashbag and started picking up the trash.

Once everything was thrown away, the two winged boy came and told me to go with them. I followed them to the very end of the warehouse. Hoops were tied up into the rafters. "Ready for your first lesson?" asked Armstrong with a smile.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I gulped and nodded. That must be what the hoops are for... Both boys shrugged off their jackets and harnesses again. I loved Armstrong's wings. The pure white if his feathers stood out against the black of the warehouses roof and rafters. Miles's wings were pretty too. I especially liked the speckles. The only ugly thing about them was the way they were awkwardly stitched into their backs. Whenever they'd turn around you could see the uneven-ness in the stitches. The ugly way that they were sewn on made you appreciate the beauty of the actual wing way more.

They spread their wings and took off. I stayed and watched from the ground, awed. Miles stayed up in the air and went through the hoops as Armstrong drifted down towards me. He landed and folded in his wings. Sort of. They stuck out above his shoulders, and only now could I see the reason for the harnasses. "Have you flown at all before?" he asked.

I shook my head no.

"Okay, we can fix that. Do you have _any_ idea on how to fly?"

"Well the only time i've flown was when I was trying to escape from those monsters... I didn't really even fly. I ran and flapped my wings and ran into a wall," I explained.

"Well, we all have to start off somewhere. First lesson, watch my wing movements," He moved his wings back and forth, slow but forcefully. he struggled to stay upright. The strong wind created by his wings made my knotted hair go wild. "Can you do that?" he asked?

I nodded and tried to unfurl my wings, buit they were trapped under my sweatshirt. "How do I...?" I asked.

Armstrong walked over to me and pulled out a boxcutter out of his pocket. I started backtracking at the sight of the weopan. "What...wh-what are you-" he moved behind me with incredible speed and cut two slits in thye back of my sweatshirt.

"There ya go," he said and put his knife back into his pocket.

I let my wings practically fall out of the shirt. It felt so good not having to hold them in.

"Okay, so now can you do what I asked you before?"

"Yeah," i said and started forcing my stiff wings back and forth. It felt hard at first, but after a few strokes it became easy. Soon it was difficult to stay on my feet as wind moved around me.

"Good job," Armstrongs voice broke into my thoughts. "You think you can make it up in the air?" he asked.

"I think so," I said. Right now flying seemed actually quite easy.

"This is what you gotta do. Since are just rting, I recommend a running start. It'll give you enough momentum to get ya up in the air," he told me. "When you're going fast enough, unfurl your wings and jump. At the same time of jumping, you must give a strong downstroke. At this point you should be pretty high up if you keep with nice, steady strokes. Got it? Good. Let's go. I'll do it with you so if you fall you won't hit the ground and explode like a tomato hitting a wall," his last part just gave me a boost courage (Please tell me you note the sarcasm).

I nodded and took in a deep breath. Armstrong got next to me. I got down low and took a last breath before I took off at a sprint. When I was sure that there was at least some blood left in my adrenaline stream, I jumped. My wings flew from my back and in one powerful downstroke I flew up into the rafters. Then I saw something running atop the rafters. In one stroke I stopped moving forward. My head snapped back and hit the rafter that was behind me. Everything started spinning, and then I attempted to fly up onto a rafter and hit my head full on. The world went black and I felt myself falling. Shouting filled the warehouse as I fell groundward.

Right before I swear I would've hit the ground, someone caught me. "Storm...Storm..._Storm_..." They repeated my name over and over while softly slapping my face. Slowly, my eyes blinked open and I saw everyone crowded around me. Except Libby. I thought back to me falling. who was it that I saw crawling around up in the rafters? Could it just so happen to be the older girl that I ecscaped with?

"Storm? Are you okay?" Miles and Armstrong butted in. I still don't know who was holding me. It was either Mace or Hendrix.

I nodded in answer to the question. "My face hurts really bad, but thats all," I said. I painfully moved my head to see who caught me. A very worried looking Mace stared back at me.

I stood up with Mace's help, of course, and looked at the worried faces all around me. I looked at Armstrong. His mouth was hanging open and his eyes staring at my back. "Storm...your wing..." he said.

_My wing?_ I thought. I craned my neck to look at my light gray wing. It was bent at an awkward angle behind me, but it didn't hurt. I turned to everyone around me and noticed for the first time that Hendrix wasn't there. "Where's Hen-" I never got the rest of my question out before Hendrix burst through the door carrying a girl. Her face was covered in blood. The source of the blood was three open claw marks across her face.

Hendrix gently laid her down on the cot next to mine. "Water...somebody get her water..." Everyone just stared, dumbstruck, at the bloodied girl. When he noticed no one was moving he yelled it. "_WATER! SOMEONE GET HER WATER_!" Mace moved the fastest and in less than a second he had a bottle pressed to her lips. As he poured the water into her mouth she stirred, just barely. Then, suddenly her body jerked and her hand grabbed the bottle. Her eyes shot open and they had this crazy look in them. Mace immediatly seized her shoulders and held her down to the bed. "Hendrix!" He screamed.

I watched, before my eyes, as these huge knives shot out of her back peirced the bed she was laying on. They like the blade of a sword, just curved and stained with blood. There were 6 of the blades in total, 3 on each side of her spine.

When the blades shot out of her back she let out a scream of pain. The wail was so highpitched that Nifty fell out of the rafters. She landed conveniantly on a row of beds.

The first blade was about 4 feet long, and the last about a foot long. Her back was arched in pain, I could tell. Blood flowed from the blades and collected in puddles beneath her. Her breathing was coming in ragged gasps as the life flowed out of her. Suddenly, I broke away from behind Miles and Armstrong and ran to the girl. When I was in within 3 feet of her bed her eyes immediatly fell upon my face.

She looked like a wild animal up close. Her hair was pulled back into one long blonde braid down to her mid-back, her eyes had a far off crazylook to them, even when they found my face. I walked closer to the bed and Mace gave me a are-you-crazy-? look. Her eyes never left my face.

When I got up next to the cot I bent down to look at her. Suddenly she screamed, rabidly, "_The_ _winged girl!"_ and her hand flew out and wrapped around my neck. She was slowly twisting my windpipe to the side. Black was creeping into my vision. Suddenly, her hand left my my neck and she cried out in pain.

Hendrix was holding her wrist. I could see the bones straining under his grip. "Mace, have Miles and Armstrong help you take her to a cell. We can't have this," said Hendrix.

Miles and Armstrong hurried forward and pushed me back as someone grabbed her hands, someone grabbed her legs, and someone grabbed her torso.

I watched as they carried her into a room. The door was hidden; i'd never seen it before. It looked about a foot thick. Mace, Miles, and Armstrong laid her down in the center and hurried outof the cell, Hendrix took their spot in the cell and closed the door.

The room was completely silent as the 3 men walked back to the center of the warehouse. I know for a fact that everyone was thinking the same thing, _What was that girl?_ We all knew she was mutant like us, but she was...she was...rabid. It was weird. When she saw it looked like something snapped within her.

When the 3 guys walked back and grabbed Libby. She followed in silence as they walked up to me. "Follow us. We need to talk," said Miles. I followed the group into a room like the cell before.

"Okay," started Armstrong.


End file.
